Seal for boxes.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SEAL FOR BOXES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 4', 1906.

Application filed October 23, 1906. Serial No. 340,160.

To all whom it Wmy concern.-

Be it known that I, EDWARD J. BROOKS, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of East Orange, in the State of New Jersey, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Seals for Boxes, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to means for preventing the covers or bottoms ofwooden packing cases or boxes of any size from being opened withoutdetection, and thus to prevent the contents or part of the same frombeing abstracted from the boxes in transit from one point to another.There are heavy losses in many kinds of goods from boxes in transit frommanufacturers to dealers and from dealers to customers.

The object of the present invention is to effectively accomplish thedesired protection by a sealing device of very simple construction.

The invention consists in a novel combination of parts and in a sealingdevice of novel construction forming part of said combination andadapted to be sold in quantity for use by shippers.

A sheet of drawings accompanies this specification as part thereof.

Figures 1 and 2 are respectively a face view and an edge view of thesealing device or seal part, as it is hereinafter termed. Fig. 3 is asmall-scale perspective view of a wooden box prepared for sealing; andFigs. 4 and 5 represent in common sections on the line A B, Fig. 1, andA B, Fig. 3, on the same scale as Figs. 1 and 2, illustrating successivestages of the sealing operation.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures.

In carrying this invention into effect a round seal part a, of suitablesheet metal, is employed within a seal-containing recess 1), adapted tobe readily and quickly formed by means of an ordinary auger-bitofsuitable size, and is combined with an ordinary nail 0, preferably ofthe wire-nail type.

The packing case or box may be of any required dimensions. An ordinaryrectangular box is represented by Fig. 3. As there shown, the box forthe purposes of this invention may be composed of two or morecoverboards 1 and 2, side and end boards 3 and 4, and a bottom 5, havingthe customary lapjoints and united with each other by nails 6 or theirequivalent in any known or improved manner.

To provide for sealing the box, both ends of each of the cover-boards 1and 2 are provided with round seal-containing recesses 12, formed asabove described. Each of these recesses being concentric with anail-hole d, Fig. 4, a seal part a is dropped into each recess and anail c is driven through the nailhole (1 into the end board 4 adjoiningthe same. The nail. may be driven by a hammer flush with the top of thecover and is then driven home, as in Fig. 5, by means of a suitablepunch.

The seal-containing recess 1) serves not only to sink the seal part abelow the outer surface of the box, so as to prevent its defacement andimpairment as a sealing device by contact with the floor and with otherobjects, but also prevents the withdrawal of the nail c by means of anail-puller, and it thus becomes impossible to free either end of eitherof the cover-boards without so marring the wood and the .seal part,either or both, as to insure detection.

The round seal part a, is designed and adapted to be made in one pieceof suitable sheet metal, as aforesaid, and is constructed with adownwardly-directed sharp outer edge 1 and with a centralnail-point-admitting hole 2, Fig. 1, the latter of less diameter thanthe shank of the nail 6, so that when the nails is driven therethrough,as in Fig. 5, said outer edge 1 is caused to embed itself in the wood,and the nail in forcing its way through the contracted central hole 2forces the metal around said hole downward into the wood, as in Fig. 5,while at the same time the seal part becomes attached to the nail to apractically inseparable extent and prevents access to the head of thenail by pliers or like tools without so marring the seal part as toinsure detection.

It is intended to seal the part or parts forming the bottom 5 of the boxin the same manner as the cover-boards 1 and 2 and to seal each part attwo or more points, as may be required; but ordinarily one seal at eachend of each part will be sufficient to render the box reasonably secureagainst being tampered with without detection.

Having thus described said improvement, I claim as my invention anddesire to patent under this specification 1. The combination with awooden box having a lap-joint the outermost member of which is providedwith a sufficient number of round seal-containing recesses in its outerside and a nail-hole centralwith reference to I tracted central holeadapted to admit the each recess of a round sheet-metal seal part pointof a nail and to be expanded by the Within each of said recesses havinga downshank of the nail and to tightly embrace the Wardly-direoted sharpouter edge adapted to i same immediately beneath the nail head 5penetrate the Wood, and a nail driven oen- When the nail has been driventherethrough, 15'

trally through each seal part into the adj oinsubstantially ashereinbefore specified. ing box part. 2 EDWVARD J. BROOKS.

2. In a seal for boxes, a round sheet-metal Witnesses: seal partconstructed with a downwardly- GEO. O. ToTTEN, [o directed sharp outeredge and With a con- GEO. R. FORD.

